Sunday, September 28, 2008

Finally, A F*cking Building 7 Smoking Gun

This photograph of downtown Manhattan, taken between 9:59 a.m. and 10:28 a.m. on September 11th, 2001, by a private citizen shooting from his apartment window in New Jersey, displays a distinct pattern of light-colored smoke emanating from fires or explosions which appear to be occurring in the south face of Building 7 at approximately the level of the 28 and 27 floor, in advance of the fall of the north tower. That is significant because it was supposedly that disaster which caused the fires in Building 7 that for the first and only time in history brought down a steel-framed, high-rise building due to fire alone.

Trying to determine exactly what floors are involved is problematic, although there is no explanation for the smoke other than from an internal source in Building 7. The public record of the fires in Building 7 is scant, and what there is of it is a hopelessly muddled affair. Contained primarily in two early official reports, Chapter 5 WTC7, from May 2002, and the Appendex L Interim Report on Building 7, from June 2004, they contain contradictory and mutually exclusive information.

The 2004 report says that "Photographs and videos were used to determine fire locations and movement within WTC 7. Most of the available information is for the north and east faces of WTC 7. Information about fires in other areas of the building was obtained from interviews..."

Does anyone think it logical that not a single image exists publically of the heavily impacted south face of Building 7, showing any damage or fire? (Although contradictorily, several images in various resolutions, exist from that day showing the south face without any damage or fire at all.) One NIST study, World Trade Center Investigation Status and First-Person Data Collection September 17, 2003, even asked plaintively that, "NIST continues to seek photos and videos from the south face of WTC7," to no avail.

Since not a single piece of steel from Building 7 was salvaged or examined in the aftermath of 9/11, when the entire collapse mechanism could have been reconstructed from that evidence alone, then the absence of other evidence of how fire originated, spread, then brought down this 47-story building remains elusive to understand.

Many photographs of the southwestern corner of Building 7 exist and they can be cross referenced to indicate that the two major floors seen as burned along the visible west face at the southwest corner, are floors 29 and 30. The 2004 report says:

• From West and Vesey Streets near the Verizon Building, fires were observed in
floors estimated to be numbered in the 20s and 30s.

Looking from the southwest corner at the south face:
• Fire was seen in the southwest corner near Floor 10 or 11
• Fire was seen on Floors 6, 7, 8, 21, and 30
• Heavy black smoke came out of a large, multi-story gash in the south face

Before 2:00 p.m.
• Figures L–22a shows fires that had burned out by early afternoon on Floors 19, 21,
22, 29, and 30 along the west face near the southwest corner.

"It does not appear that the collapse of WTC 1 affected the roof, or the east, west, and north elevations of WTC 7 in any significant way. However, there was damage to the southwest corner of WTC 7 at approximately floors 8 to 20, 24, 25, and 39 to 46, as shown in Figure 5-16, a photograph taken from West Street."

This is significant, in as much as the two paired and segregated floors noted as damaged, 24 and 25, would appear to correlate with only this image evidence---especially interesting, since those floors housed the the CIA, the DoD, and the IRS.

RUMSFELD ON 9/11: In his private dining room to U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif minutes before the attack.

"He said, 'Let me tell ya, I've been around the block a few times. There will be another event.' And he repeated it for emphasis," Cox said. "And within minutes of saying that, his words proved tragically prophetic."CJ Online (free registration to see article).

After this, Rumsfeld went out onto the Pentagon lawn to make an appearance (Article text and photo). How did he predict the third attack? Why did he feel safe to go out? What is the Secretary of Defense doing taking chances with our national security by risking his life outside while we're under attack? What if there had been a fourth attack (there was a fourth plane)? What if he'd been killed? Or did he know the attacks were over? Following is a second version of the story where he even suggested the attack might be on the Pentagon.

"Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, was in his office on the eastern side of the building, in a meeting with Christopher Cox, the defence policy committee chairman of the House of Representatives. Mr Rumsfeld, recalls Mr Cox, watched the TV coverage from New York and said: 'Believe me, this isn't over yet. There's going to be another attack, and it could be us.'

Moments later, the plane hit. Mr Rumsfeld ran to the point of impact and helped load the wounded on to stretchers before retreating to the secure National Military Command Centre, beneath the building. There, he refused entreaties to evacuate even as the Centre filled with smoke." (Source).

Recent events on Wall Street would also make the impacted 19th-floor tenet, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Securities Valuation Office, of some potential interest. I'd bet this Christopher Cox is the same Chris Cox who heads the Security & Exchange Commission in the present crisis. Image that---he was breakfasting with Rumsfeld in the Pentagon on September 11th,